deadcatwithaflamethrower:daughterofscotland:thatswhywelovegermany:Marriage Charter of Empress Theoph
deadcatwithaflamethrower:daughterofscotland:thatswhywelovegermany:Marriage Charter of Empress Theophanu from 972Otto I. “The Great” undertook an intense diplomatic effort to improve the relationship with the Byzantine empire. One of these measures was to marry his son Otto II. with a Byzantine princess. After several failed attempts, he managed to convince Constantinople to send a bride. The girl who arrived in Germany was apparently a disappointment: Instead of the deceased Byzantine emperor Romanos II.’s daughter, a niece of his ousted predecessor was sent to Germany. Some advisors told him to send her back, but Otto I. decided to marry her anyway with his son, probably to avoid more diplomatic trouble.In April 24, 972, the wedding took place. In this document, after a theological introduction, the political circumstances of the marriage are mentioned. After that, legal affairs are regulated. The empress obtained imperial rights for several provinces and courtyards scattered from Italy to today’s Netherlands, and income from these territories.The parchment is soaked with a purple-red pigment mixture from lead red and madder root. The golden pigment of the ink is a pulverized alloy of silver and gold. It is largely written in calligraphic minuscles. The OTTO monograms near the bottom are very well recognizable, and by reading closely, you may actually find Theophanu’s name. Theophanu apparently took a very active role during the reign of her husband, as many documents carrying her name prove. When he suddenly died, she took over the regency for her only five year old son, together with her mother-in-law until her death in 991.The very well preserved 144.5 by 39.5 cm large document was forgotten in the library of the Gandersheim monastery for centuries. It was rediscovered around 1700; its importance was recognized by mathematician and scholar Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. It is now on permanent public display in a darkened room under optimal air-conditioning at the State Library of Lower Saxony in Wolfenbüttel.@deadcatwithaflamethrower I thought this might interest you. Just realise I’ve must have been walking by it a lot during my childhood. I went to the library in Wolfenbuettel a lot as a kid. *academic growling* The first half of this is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.Otto I wasn’t trying to improve relations with Byzantium. He was actively invading and trying to take their Western European holdings! Otto I had only recently named his kingdom an empire and wanted to *legitimatize* being able to call his digs the Roman Empire by getting his Heir a bride from the actual remaining Roman Empire. That’s it. That was his plan. He started trying to achieve this goal in 967, but the current-Emperor of Constantinople said Nope because Otto I was in the middle of trying to steal their shit.Part of the reason Constantinople (NOT BYZANTIUM, NOT THEN) later agreed was a fucking negotiation: Otto I would get a princess of Constantinople for his son if he agreed to leave Constantinople’s shit in Western Europe and Italy the entire hell alone. Otto I agreed, and the (new) Emperor of Constantinople sent one of his nieces by marriage. This pissed Otto off, since he was expecting a daughter of the Emperor, but that’s what the stupid fuck Otto I got for not encouraging proper Latin reading and education–the contracted agreement stipulated that the bride would be a niece or a granddaughter of the Emperor, not a daughter.Theophanu was NOT SENT TO GERMANY, AND SHE WAS NOT A DISAPPOINTMENT (except in the perceived political snubbing sense). Also important: Otto I is infamous for not giving a single fuck what his noble advisors thought about Otto’s doings unless those advisors were his self-appointed men of the Church, which yes, he also appointed the Pope.The Church was entirely down with the marriage considering where this marriage took place:Theophanu was sent directly to motherfucking ROME in the company of a guard, a LOT of treasure, silks and riches (that the Germans had no concept of at the time and considered a sinful excess), a massive entourage, and a LOT of other shiny things to show off that Constantinople and Theophanu were complete badasses and this pathetic excuse for a western Roman Empire best recognize it right now.Otto I was smart enough to realize that, daughter or niece, the marriage would still accomplish what he wanted. Otto II and Theophanu were married that same month in Rome in St. Peter’s Basilica, and Theophanu was crowned Empress Regent with Co-Emperor Otto II by the Pope the very same day. And it was 14th April, not 24th. Seriously. Research. Do it. The date is ON THE CONTRACT.Seriously, what the fuck, who wrote this original summary? The only thing correct are the details about how the contract was made! Theophanu was not the daughter of Romanos II. (People often make this mistake because Romanos II was married to a different Theophano.) Romanos II had also been DEAD since 963, well before the original bride-negotiation attempts began. Theophanu was the niece-by-marriage of Emperor Iōánnēs I Tzimiskēs, and most likely the daughter of Constantine Skleros and Sophia Phokaina, who was the cousin of the Emperor; Sophia was the daughter of the brother of Emperor Nikephoros II, who was the dude Tzimiskēshad just deposed via handy assassination. Yep, family killing family, time-honored tradition among Roman Emperors.That was not Theodora gaining those income rights, by the way. That was CONSTANTINOPLE keeping their property. Theodora was Empress Consort and because the Kingdom of the Romans was a bag of dicks, they did not really recognize noble women in positions of authority unless those women were badass enough to stand up and give them no choice–like Theophanu, Greek and Armenian woman who was not about to put up with that nonsense for very long. (Otherwise you pretty much had to be an Abbess, which is why you’ll find that so many widowed queens and high-ranking nobility became an Abbess after their husbands cacked it. It was a way to retain authority that was recognized by the Church.)It was not during her husband’s reign that Theophanu was an active and powerful badass–the Saxons and Franks would have thrown a complete hissy fit and seen it as attempts to weaken and undermine her husband the Emperor. Besides, Otto II and Theophanu were only married for about ten years, and she spent a great deal of that time having their five children. (Otto III’s twin sister died before baptism, unfortunately, so we don’t even know her name.)Theophanu is famous (and later infamous) for earning the respect of her entire new Empire after her young husband unexpectedly dropped dead of malaria. This could have destroyed the Empire. So, instead of being a mere little Regent while Otto III was a kid, Theophanu took the reins and ruled so well that she was readily recognized by the nobility and the Church as Imperatrix Augusta. EMPRESS. Not Empress Consort. Not Empress Regent. EMPRESS. The only other woman to be recognized as Empress in full during that period was Otto I’s third wife Adelheid, who he insisted be named Empress along with himself when he made Rome name himself and his wife Roman Emperor and Empress after he saved Rome’s ass. (Then Rome tried to take it back. That Pope did not last very long.)Otto III was not five years old at his father’s death. He was three. Dowager Empress Adelheid had no regency over her grandson until after Theophanu’s unexpected death at age 34, when Otto III was eleven.Oh, and that peace agreement? Otto I and Otto II both went immediately back to trying to conquer all of southern Italy to take away Constantinople’s holdings. It wasn’t until *after* Otto II died that Theophanu negotiated and maintained peace with Constantinople so that the two Empires weren’t at each other’s throats all the time. It was her polical savvy, diplomacy, and negotiations that strengthened the entire Western Roman Empire. Hers. Not any of the Ottonians. Her. She did it.Imperatrix Augusta Theophanu Skleraina.Oh, and there are much better views of the marriage contract so you don’t have to deal with Tumblr’s shrinking of images:Close up of the Full Document.Another site for viewing details.A bloody WEARABLE version. -- source link